The Tea Party likes to portray itself as fighting for the Constitution, but more and more evidence makes it clear that the Tea Party only cares about the parts of our original Constitution that limited the powers of the federal government. In their rush to exalt states’ rights, Tea-Partiers consistently ignore the rest of our Nation’s foundational document, particularly the amendments to the Constitution that made equality and protection of basic civil rights fundamental constitutional values, secured the right to vote and made our system of government more democratic, and gave the federal

This week, Senator Mitch McConnell went on the offensive against Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, questioning her commitment to the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Citing Kagan’s oral argument in Citizens United v.

In the media blitzkrieg that has followed President Obama’s announcement on Monday of his nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, it’s important to remember that many nominations to the lower courts are also pending. Among those is the nomination of noted constitutional scholar and law professor Goodwin Liu to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Today, in a predictable party line vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee favorably voted out Professor Liu’s nomination, 12-7.